Friday, May 25, 2007

The Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man

Austin Bay interviews Dr. David Kilcullen, senior counter-insurgency advisor to Gen. David Petraeus and Multi-National Force -Iraq. Austin Bay says "If [the counterinsurgency strategy] sounds something like a political campaign, that’s because it is –politics, including politics by other means."

Since counterinsurgency is a competition to mobilize popular support, it pays to know how people are mobilized. In most societies there are opinionmakers: local leaders, pillars of the community, religious figures, media personalities, and others who set trends and influence public perceptions. This influence—including the pernicious influence of the insurgents—often takes the form of a “single narrative.” This is a simple, unifying, easily-expressed story or explanation that organizes people’s experience and provides a framework for understanding events. Nationalist and ethnic historical myths, or sectarian creeds, provide such a narrative. The Iraqi insurgents have one, as do al- Qaida and the Taliban. To undercut their influence you must exploit an alternative narrative: or better yet, tap into an existing narrative that excludes the insurgents. This narrative is often worked out for you by higher headquarters—but only you have the detailed knowledge to tailor the narrative to local conditions and generate leverage from it.

One way to restate Dr. Kilcullen is to say 'the enemy has been telling his story. We have not been telling ours.' And that I am afraid, is not the enemy's fault. The wound is entirely self-inflicted. Somewhere in the last forty years the West's favorite cultural activity changed from telling it's story to disparaging it: to mocking its faith, describing its economic system as inhuman, ridiculing the continuation of its family life as bovine. This trend came under many colors: anti-establishmentarianism, sexual liberation, cultural rebellion. It occasionally described itself as avante garde, though whither this advanced contingent was heading no one could say, except that it led away.

And now by some irony, Dr. Kilcullen says that in order to defeat a vicious, backward and ruthless enemy whose primary tool is the narrative that he preaches, we set against it an goal of equal worth. We must rival the enemy vision with one of our own, or perhaps more accurately, one that the Iraqi people can come up with. Our survival must be purchased at the cost of renewed self-belief. Alas, some will find the price too high.

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

I grew up with cowboy heros and now we have cowboys buggering each other in the movies. I had a Marine father who killed evil japanese as a hero and now our soldiers are seen as Darth Cheney dupes. The list goes on and on. Our mythology has been utterly destroyed.

In related news, but not of the obvious type, the paid membership of CAIR appears to be collapsing. Though the Hamas offshoot continues to punch above its weight in the salons of the infidel politicians, it has lost its appeal to actual Muslims, who no longer wish to belong to such a lying, deceitful organization.

It is possible to oppose a false narrative with the truth. This shows it.

"Somewhere in the last forty years the West's favorite cultural activity changed from telling it's story to disparaging it: to mocking its faith, describing its economic system as inhuman, ridiculing the continuation of its family life as bovine."

I would suggest the last ninety years...the start date making obvious the source of the rot.

this is why you'll hear me talk about killing the cost of water desalination so as to turn the deserts green and double the size of the habitable planet. it is not just doable. it serves as a very good counter narrative both to the primitives and to the globalist elites.

How can America, how can we, not be able to articulate the preferability of liberty, the rights of man, and a philosophical premise we have built on for more than two hundred years? All of America is full of words - television, radio, the Internet. If we can't express the important parts of what we are, all of that is blab.

How can America, how can we, not be able to articulate the preferability of liberty, the rights of man, and a philosophical premise we have built on for more than two hundred years? All of America is full of words - television, radio, the Internet. If we can't express the important parts of what we are, all of that is blab.

The fragmentation of the left with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the wholesale proof of socialism's failure, has made the left harder to contend with than ever. They have now sprouted up like weeds with environmentalism, multi-culti and the like. The means has stayed the same: defeat capitalism and liberal democracy with it's own compassion and concern for the future.

Their chief bastions are the liberal arts departments at universities and in government service. One problem with conservatives is that they are driven to finding useful occupations. One bit of good news is that they breed at a low rate, and must prey on our young people's minds.

It is tough to speak these truths to friends and families that are part of the problem. It is useful to find a place like this to both vent and hear it put into civil discourse. Maybe this time I'll be well armed enough.